Arts

BALTIMORE (AP) — The new executive director of the Walters Art Museum is on the job.

Monday is Julia Marciari-Alexander's first day at the museum in Baltimore. She was named executive director in February, replacing Gary Vikan, who retired after 18 years as director. The museum made admission free in 2006 under Vikan's leadership.

Before Marciari-Alexander was hired at the Walters, she was deputy director for curatorial affairs at the San Diego Museum of Art.

Legendary saxophonist Jimmy Heath performs with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Jazz Ensemble March 27 at a 7 p.m. concert in the Ella Fitzgerald Center for the Performing Arts.

Director of Bands Dr. John R. Lamkin said he and students are honored to work with a musician of Jimmy Heath’s stature. “To be around someone of that caliber who has experienced all of the changes in the music industry from the 1940s to the present, is like being around a living encyclopedia of jazz,” he said.

– University of Maryland Eastern Shore’s drama director is set to stage one last play—as a full-time professor and director, that is—before retiring after 38 years. The play by Vernel Bagneris slated for UMES’ annual Dinner Theater is appropriately named, “One Mo’ Time”.

Dameron-Johnson describes those years as a dream.

“Coming to work every day to teach, direct and perform never felt like a job to me,” she said. “I love my students, first and foremost, and my colleagues on campus. I’ve had a good run.”